73 – deaths per week (including suicides) among disabled people as a result of the government’s programme of Work Capability Assessments (WCAs), which is categorising people as fit for work when they are plainly not.(Many have expressed doubts over the veracity of this figure. They are DWP figures and widely accept as reliable and have been referred to in many House of Commons debates, a good benchmark. However, others wonder how we can compare this to the general death rate. In reply I offer that, the year previously there were 52 deaths per week recorded, so this is a year on year increase. Now these deaths start to sound more serious, in my opinion.)500,000 (est.) – number of disabled people deliberately excluded from the reforms to DLA, to be called the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), as a cost-saving measure. So not receiving the extra mobility support and care allowances to carry on a normal life (many of these need this extra support to carry on working and “contributing to society” by paying tax etc etc.)

But that appears over-cautious. Yesterday, the Tory Minister for Disabled People, Esther McVey, told the House of Commons that, of the 560,000 people who will be assessed for the new benefit by 2015, 330,000 are expected to be excluded from the benefit. That’s an exclusion rate of 59%. 3.2 million people receive DLA, so if the same failure rate applies as they become due for reassessment, that means around 1.9 million disabled people who will lose crucial support. Using the same calculations as I applied to the 500,000 initially flagged to be excluded, it means almost a million people pushed below the poverty line.

(There is also another issue: how do the Government know the numbers before reassessment has even taken place? This sounds like another ‘forecasted mean’ that looks like a target, but “isn’t a target – OK?”…)

Factor that into the death rate from energy and food poverty, and you’re looking at a situation where the 24,000 deaths last winter will look like nothing compared to what we’re going to see, let alone the 30 innocent deaths in Connecticut.